The Research Showcase is an integral part of Honors Day held in April each year. Here are the resources you need to produce and present a professional academic poster and written abstract summary that highlight your research.
Student Career Advisor: Julie Winter
Appointments: Schedule via Handshake
Location: 202A Ponzio Campus Center
Hours: 8 am – 4:30 pm
Phone: 715-682-1232
Email
The goals of the showcase are to celebrate student research and capstone projects and provide students with an opportunity to gain professional presentation skills, and network with those who connect with them.
Any junior or senior who is completing a capstone, research, thesis, or fine arts creative project this academic year is invited to prepare a poster and accompanying written abstract summary.
Students who are not juniors or seniors but are collaborating on a group research or capstone project, or are registered for their own capstone course are also welcome to participate.
Student researchers will:
To register for inclusion in this event, submit information about your research and poster through this form by Wednesday, March 23rd, at 4:30 pm.
Your submission will automatically be sent to Julie Winter, Student Career Advisor who is organizing the event, and the Faculty Research Supervisor who is overseeing and approving your final poster and written abstract.
If you have questions about how to complete the form, please contact Julie Winter at jwinter@northland.edu.
Students must submit final printed and digital versions of the required documents listed below on or before Monday, April 4th, at 4:30 pm. Failure to submit on time will result in exclusion from presenting.
Your materials must be reviewed and approved by your Faculty Research Supervisor before submitting.
Deliver the following printed materials to Julie Winter, Student Career Advisor’s office; 202A, 2nd Floor of the Ponzio Campus Center:
Please note: If this deadline is missed, you will not be able to present your work during the in-person Research Showcase.
Submit the following digital materials through this form on or before Monday, April 4th, at 4:30 pm.
• A JPG version of your professional poster with a minimum resolution of 1600 x 1000.
• A Microsoft Word Document of your written abstract that concisely summarizes your research work. (200 – 250 words in length).
• The Final Poster Title (Only applicable if there has been a change to the title of your poster since you originally submitted)
Please note: If this deadline is missed, there is no guarantee your work will be included on the website.
If your Faculty Research Supervisor is unable to review and edit, Library Director Julia Waggoner is available to assist, but you must schedule a meeting with her in advance of the submission deadline to receive help. Julia can be reached at: Jwaggoner@northland.edu to set up a meeting.
The registration deadline for presenting at this event has passed. If you would like to request approval for consideration of a late registration, email Student Career Advisor Julie Winter at jwinter@northland.edu. Please copy your faculty research supervisor as well.
Most participants use PowerPoint to design a poster, but students can use any platform, as long as the end product meets the following requirements:
You are encouraged to develop your poster using a horizontal layout.
If you feel strongly that a vertical layout is necessary to adequately convey your information, please contact Julie Winter, Student Career Advisor (jwinter@northland.edu) to identify this ahead of time to ensure there is an appropriate display location available.
You will submit a digital version of your poster which must be saved as a JPEG file. This format ensures a better viewing experience when published on the website.
See the “Example Poster” section below. You can also view last year’s posters for more examples.
You must print your poster using the on-campus plotter printer located in lab 252 of the CSE. This is a specialized printer and requires attention to detail when identifying your printing settings. See the step-by-step printing guide which includes screenshots and directions (and directions for PowerPoint user). If using PowerPoint, see the below within this section for additional resources.
Each student may print one poster for FREE, however there is a $20 fee for printing an additional poster.
If you would like assistance with formatting and printing, contact Professor Cyndi May (cmay@northland.edu) to set an appointment prior to, or during the following dates and times:
This is how your poster will be viewed. Click the image to expand the view.
You can view past posters for additional examples.
Abstracts should be between 200-250 words. They should be saved as a separate Microsoft Word document, and are not included on the poster. Your faculty research supervisor must review your abstract before you submit it.
Although abstracts vary somewhat by discipline, all abstracts are a succinct summary of a completed work or work in progress. An abstract condenses a larger piece of writing (a thesis, research project, performance, etc.), highlighting its major points and concisely describing the content and scope of the project. For purposes of the Research Showcase, you will need to produce an informative abstract. Your abstract should include the following elements:
Why should the reader care about the problem/issue you’ve chosen to explore? This section should focus on the importance of your work and the potential impact it might have if successful.
What problem are you trying to solve? What issue did you set out to explore? What do you hope to learn from it?
How did you go about solving or making progress on the problem? What method did you use to explore you problem (sampling, experimentation, trial and error)? If you did not do a research project, make note here of any theoretical framework or methodological assumptions that underlie what you did. If in the arts, this section should outline the media and process you used to develop your project.
What did you discover/uncover during your research? Your explanation of the significance of your results (completed, unexpected, negative, and partial) is more important than the results themselves. If your research is not completed, this section should list the expected results or outcomes.
What are the implications of your findings? How does your work contribute to your field of study? Are there implications for future work in this area?
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SMALL MAMMAL SPECIES DIVERSITY AND WOODLAND JUMPING MICE
Allison M. DeRose, Emily K. Heald, and Dr. Paula S. Anich
Northland College
April 4, 2013
Abstract: The Woodland Jumping Mouse (Napaeozapus insignis) is an old-growth boreal rodent species. Woodland Jumping Mice play an important role in forest ecosystems because they disperse the spores of fungi that are only found on coniferous tree species. The distribution of this species in Wisconsin and its interactions with other small mammal species are not well understood. Prior to 2011, the Woodland Jumping Mouse was represented statewide only by 48 museum specimens. Due to its perceived rarity, the Woodland Jumping Mouse has been listed as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. This study analyzes the influence of other small mammal species on the presence of Woodland Jumping Mice. Over a period of 3 months in the summer of 2012, (6,600 trap-nights) we set Sherman-live traps in 14 different sites in Ashland, Bayfield, Price, and Sawyer counties within the Chequamegon National Forest. We targeted late-succession spruce-fir and hemlock sites in order to locate populations of Woodland Jumping Mice. We captured 7 definitive Woodland Jumping Mice, one of which was a recapture. In addition to the target species, we captured 593 animals of 10 species. We sexed and measured standard morphometrics (mass, total body length, ear length, tail length, hind foot length) for each animal trapped. We looked for statistically significant relationships between the presence of Woodland Jumping Mice and small mammal species diversity using the program R. We discovered that Woodland Jumping Mice are associated with sites that have high small mammalian species diversity. This relationship suggests that the presence of Woodland Jumping Mice at a particular site is an indication of pristine, unfragmented wildlife habitat.
You can see examples of past abstracts on the Honors Day page.
Additional resources to help you write an abstract are available at Dexter Library.
LB 2369 .R87 2006
How to write a successful science thesis: the concise guide for students / by William E. Russey, Hans F. Ebel, Claus Bliefert.
Q 180.55 .M4 B66 1995
The craft of research / by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams.
